Blog

Point – Counterfact

As I continue to grow and learn on the subject of how to be happier (one of my goals for this year) I thought I would pass on a practical highlight again from the book I am working through by Shawn Anchor (The Happiness Advantage).

A counterfact is an imaginary scenario that our mind creates to help us analyze a situation. The example Shawn uses in his book is as follows: You walk into a bank full of 50 people, men, women and children to do a deposit. Several minutes into your wait a gunman comes in to rob it and shoots you in the arm. No one else was injured. Is that a fortunate or unfortunate circumstance?

To answer the question your mind forms up other scenarios to decide. One who considers it unfortunate might say, "of all the banks in all the world with the statistical probability that I would be the one person shot, very unfortunate". One who considers it fortunate might say, "no one including children were even hurt or killed and I simply got a "flesh wound", how fortunate for all".

His point here is that one of the practical ways we can own a more positive happy life is to choose, even train ourselves, to find a positive counterfact in difficult times. It will radically affect the way we see and live life.